Correction: The original posting of this story incorrectly stated the neighborhood in which Michael Rechcygiel lives.

More than a dozen area residents gathered at a Boulder Planning Board hearing Thursday night to voice opposition to plans that call for construction of 49 townhouse rentals at the northeast corner of 28th Street and Kalmia Avenue.

The opponents, many of them residents of the Sale Lake neighborhood directly east of the site, said 49 new residential units would be far too dense a project for an area that already suffers from traffic problems on Kalmia, the neighborhood's main access street.

"Cramming this many families into this small an area will not really benefit anyone's lifestyle, even the people that rent there," 30-year Palo Park neighborhood resident Michael Rechcygiel said.

Thursday's hearing covered plans for the Wonderland Creek Townhomes, submitted to the city by WCT LLC, an entity led by Scott Woodard. The project would include 49 one- and two-story townhouses on a five-acre site just south of the Manor Care Nursing Home.

The site that straddles the Wonderland Creek multi-use path is zoned medium-density residential and was part of a larger annexation of land made in 1989, according to city planning documents. At that time, the annexation agreement limited the dwelling units on the 10-acre property to 74.

The Manor Care Nursing Home has 25 units.

Stephen Sparn, the architect for the project, said the goal is to build market-rate workforce housing that would appeal to young professionals, families and people who appreciate the site's proximity to the bike trail and bus routes.

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"My 29-year-old son is an environmental engineer and works in Boulder, but he lives in west Denver and commutes to Boulder every morning because the cost of housing is so expensive," Sparn said. "He's one of the 50,000 cars a day that commute into Boulder. This is our target demographic."

Sparn said the development team held two meetings with people from the neighborhood to hear their concerns -- one on Nov. 7 and another on Jan. 8. He said the themes he heard were the development was too dense, there would be too much traffic and there was not enough on-site parking in the plan.

He said steps taken by the team included withdrawing a parking reduction request that had been filed with the city and commissioning a traffic impact study. He said several previous concepts for the space included more than 49 units.

The submitted plan would have a density of less than 10 units per acre, well below the 14 units per acre allowed under the city's zoning code, Sparn said.

The project's opponents disputed that number, saying Wonderland Creek cuts across the western portion of the site and carries with it a 120-foot wetlands buffer. Many speakers said holes drilled on the site demonstrate high ground water that would make only three acres of the space useful for building, driving the density up to 16.3 units per acre.

"Density is the one thing that's killing us, and it is the one thing that if it were to change, it would reduce and actually eliminate all of the complaints from the neighborhood," said resident Fred Gluck. "Parking, transportation, safety, all of that stuff is exacerbated by density."

Several members of the Planning Board indicated they don't agree with the assessment that the project is too high-density for the area, pointing to some of the higher-density apartment complexes nearby on 28th Street.

"I see this as an opportunity to create some workforce housing and meet some city goals to decrease inflow driving and create neighborhoods where people can take care of their necessities without a car," said board member Aaron Brockett. "A medium-density residential project is appropriate here."

Board member Bill Holicky requested that the developer and the neighborhood residents keep an open dialogue.

The plan will next come before the board after a site plan is submitted. The time frame of that submission will be up to the developers.

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